A string of stalled developments in Chicago’s Fulton Market—once the city’s most reliable magnet for new investment—has become the latest warning sign about the city’s financial trajectory. On Chicago’s Morning Answer, host Dan Proft spoke with Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and senior policy adviser at the Illinois Policy Institute, to unpack why more than 20 green-lighted projects are suddenly sitting idle and why institutional capital is steering clear of Chicago altogether.
According to a recent Chicago Tribune discussion highlighted by Proft, the hold-up isn’t construction costs or interest rates. It’s confidence—specifically, the lack of it. Developers have reportedly struggled to secure equity financing because investors no longer believe they can reliably predict future taxes or the long-term financial stability of the city under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.
Vallas said the hesitancy is justified. “Why would anybody want to do a deal in Chicago—or for that matter, Illinois?” he asked. He pointed to Illinois’ ranking as the highest-taxed state in the nation when accounting for both taxes and fees. Since 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has enacted or increased fees and taxes 55 times, generating roughly $7 billion annually, despite receiving $14 billion in pandemic aid that is now spent.
Commercial property taxes in Chicago remain the highest in the country, and Johnson has pursued a slate of additional levies: a revived head tax, an increased cloud tax, and a proposed congestion tax. Vallas warned these are not abstract burdens—they directly shape investment decisions. “This is absolute madness,” he said. “These taxes hit working people while the administration pretends they’re only targeting the wealthy.”
While investors hesitate, Chicago’s political leadership appears to be losing favor even with its core base. Proft played audio from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression conference, where Mayor Johnson was shouted down by activists before he could deliver prepared remarks. Vallas said the moment captured the incoherence of Johnson’s messaging: “His response to everything is the same campaign speech—attacking corporations and pretending his budget is a choice between taxing the rich or working people. But the taxes he’s imposing absolutely hit working people.”
Vallas drew a line between financial mismanagement and the broader decline of public institutions. He highlighted the recent inspector general report showing Chicago Public Schools employees taking lavish, often unauthorized trips to Las Vegas, Egypt, and other destinations—even during COVID-era school closures. Those closures, he said, coincided with an explosion in violence against school-age youth: nearly 900 shot and more than 100 killed during the 78 consecutive weeks CPS kept classrooms closed.
“While they were wining and dining,” Vallas said, “out-of-school youth were being murdered at record levels.”
Returning to economic concerns, Proft noted the irony of a staffer in Senate President Don Harmon’s office being robbed at knifepoint in Oak Park—a stark reminder that even key architects of Illinois’ criminal-justice policies aren’t insulated from the consequences. Vallas said the state’s decline is reflected in its population losses: 1.6 million residents have left Illinois since 2000, and surveys show almost half of those remaining would leave if they had the means. The income gap between those departing and those arriving is nearly $40,000 a year, meaning Illinois is trading taxpayers for dependents, further squeezing state finances.
“Sanctuary city and sanctuary state policies have been designed to blunt the population loss for political reasons,” Vallas said. “But the people leaving take revenue with them, and the people arriving often require public assistance. It’s completely unsustainable.”
Vallas closed by criticizing the political protection Pritzker and Johnson continue to enjoy from much of the media. “They’re not subject to the type of scrutiny leaders faced ten or fifteen years ago,” he said. “The rhetoric goes unchallenged, and the consequences fall on taxpayers.”
As stalled cranes tower over Fulton Market and long-term residents flee rising costs, Vallas suggested the picture is increasingly clear to investors, businesses, and families: under current leadership, Chicago and Illinois are becoming too unpredictable, too expensive, and too unstable to bet on.